The Tesla Model S will cost from £49,900 in 60kWh guise, after the government’s £5000 car grant has been deducted. The 85kw model costs £57,300 and the 85kWh Performance model costs £68,700. Right-hand-drive models will be delivered by the end of March 2014.

The announcement came as Tesla opened its first UK outlet at the Westfield shopping centre in West London. Founder Elon Musk confirmed the first UK Supercharger charging site will be established in “the next quarter” with a nationwide network established by the end of 2014.

Today marks 60 years since the first Seat was produced. The Seat 1400 saloon was the firm’s first model and began production just three years after Seat was founded. Almost 100,000 1400s were built over a decade at Seat’s original Zona Franca factory in Barcelona. Seat has produced more than 16 million vehicles to date.

Am i the only one who thinks that the £5,000 tax payers gift seems wrong on a car that costs over £50k? I can understand the idea of the grant to get people into the cheapest electric cars (even if i dont agree with it), but that is there to make them cost about a similar amount to conventional cars. But if you have a £50k budget you can afford an electric car outright.
And nearly all of these will be a company purchase too , so they will get the Vat back, and the driver wont have any tax liability. In times of austerity this appears rather obscene to me.

[quote=artill]Am i the only one who thinks that the £5,000 tax payers gift seems wrong on a car that costs over £50k? ... if you have a £50k budget you can afford an electric car ... they will get the Vat back, and the driver wont have any tax liability. In times of austerity this appears rather obscene to me.[/quote]
Chances are, any individual buying (or getting as a company car) £50K of company car is paying more than the average tax bill anyway - so why the sour grapes? It's not as if it's a fixed percentage grant - on a base Leaf this could be a 25% discount, whereas on this boss-mobile it's just 10% off...
Having said that, I agree the grant is bad policy (probably costs £10k per car after admin). They would be better off dropping the VAT on electric cars (I think BIK is already lowered)...

[quote=A34][quote=artill]Am i the only one who thinks that the £5,000 tax payers gift seems wrong on a car that costs over £50k? ... if you have a £50k budget you can afford an electric car ... they will get the Vat back, and the driver wont have any tax liability. In times of austerity this appears rather obscene to me.[/quote]
Chances are, any individual buying (or getting as a company car) £50K of company car is paying more than the average tax bill anyway - so why the sour grapes? It's not as if it's a fixed percentage grant - on a base Leaf this could be a 25% discount, whereas on this boss-mobile it's just 10% off...
Having said that, I agree the grant is bad policy (probably costs £10k per car after admin). They would be better off dropping the VAT on electric cars (I think BIK is already lowered)...[/quote]
I suspect anyone getting a £55k to £75K CoCar is paying a huge amount of tax. But i bet pretty much every one of them would prefer a lower tax bill rather than the offer of a cheaper but flawed CoCar.